Effect of Carbonic Maceration Pre-treatment on Drying Kinetics of Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) Flesh and Quality of Dried Product

A new pre-treatment — carbonic maceration (CM) pre-treatment — was presented in this paper. To study the effect of CM on microwave drying (MD) kinetics of Chilli flesh and quality of dried product, the fresh (control group, CK) and CM pre-treated samples were dried through MD at 100, 150 and 200 W, respectively. CM conditions were optimized by orthogonal test. The drying results indicated that, the average drying rate for CM samples were as much as 150–185 % of these for CK samples. For both CK and CM samples, the drying rate increased at the initial time (a warming-up period) and then decreased at the end time (a falling rate period) after reaching a plateau (a constant rate period). And the effective diffusivity, Deff, increased gradually at the initial period and then rapidly at the final period with the diminishing moisture content. Elevated microwave power levels could lead to a linear increase in values of Deff at the same moisture content. The activation energy, Ea, increased rapidly when moisture content was below about 1 g water/g dry mass, which was lower for CM samples than for CK samples, and can be well described with a logistic model. Scavenging free radical capability (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenol contents and vitamin C retention contents of the dried products for CM samples were as much as 170.1–190.9 %, 140.2–147.8 %, 140.1–160.0 % and 212.7–682.4 % of these for CK samples, respectively. The CM dried products were also better in terms of colour differences than CK.